8. Memory, Sorrow And Thorn By Fantasy Writer Tad Williams
Tad Williams is a massively successful fantasy and sci-fi writer who was born in San Jose, California. Williams is celebrated for his extensive, multi-volume series including the Otherland, Shadowmarch and Memory, Sorrow And Thorn series'. In Memory, Sorrow and Thorn (which is actually a trilogy), there are many similarities to early elements of A Song Of Ice And Fire, including a character who likes to run along castle rooftops, pet wolves, a significant throne (constructed from dragon bones) and monsters that hail from the frozen north. On top of that, the broader themes are similar too: the series is about political unrest between a massive cast of characters from various countries around the world. What's great, though, is that Martin openly cites the Memory, Sorrow And Thorn trilogy as being massively inspirational when it came to writing A Song Of Ice And Fire. The first book in the trilogy was published in 1988 eight years before A Game Of Thrones was published in 1996 and the final entry came out in 1993, so it makes sense that Martin would have read and appreciated the books. In a 2011 interview, Martin described how fantasy writing had gotten incredibly stale until Tad Williams rejuvenated it with the first book in the Memory, Sorrow And Thorn trilogy, The Dragonbone Chair. It was only after reading the book that Martin realised something could still be done with the form.
Brian Wilson
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Commonly found reading, sitting firmly in a seat at the cinema (bottle of water and a Freddo bar, please) or listening to the Mountain Goats.
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